Gaunt card question
 

There is a Gregory and Quilter parachute badge for sale at the moment which is mounted on a Gaunt London card:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175510883297?

On the card is written "established 200 years", but its London office opened in 1905. Can someone please explain?

Source https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/J._R._Gaunt_and_Son

J. R. Gaunt and Son

as J. R. Gaunt and Son of Warstone Parade and Alfred Street, Birmingham. (1922)

as J. R. Gaunt and Sons of Warstone Parade Works, Birmingham. (1929)

Established 1750

Manufacturer of military and uniform buttons from 1870 to 1973.

1896 Military, Naval, Railway and Police button and ornament manufacturers. [1]

1896/7 Directory: Advertiser. More detail. [2]

1922 Listed Exhibitor. Manufacturers of Buttons, Badges, Medals, Whistles, Belt Buckles, Shoe Buckles, Safety Razors, Ladies' Handbag Frames, Advertising Novelties, Fancy Metal Goods, Souvenirs. (Stand No. E.26a) [3]

1929 Listed Exhibitor. Manufacturers of Buttons, Badges, Medals, Buckles, and Metal and Enamelled Fancy Articles, Bag Frames, Souvenirs. Birmingham Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Association Member. (Stand Nos. J.43 and J.54) [4]

1991 Purchased by Firmin and Sons.

It opened an office in London in 1905, but its manufacturing base had always been in Birmingham and remained there until the company ceased trading.

Dave

I think it is possibly an "inherited" claim.

From "TRADES DIRECTORY, 1914."

In 1897 Gaunt & Son purchased Thurkle's business and thereafter used the Thurkle name on swords retailed by themselves.


Photo #1 shows advert from the Volunteer Service Gazette and Military Dispatch (13 September 1901).

Photo #2 from Army List March 1938.

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The card in the op is just a worthless piece of cardboard, these have been brought up on here before and I contacted a lady at Buckingham Palace who confirmed it 10 years ago.

Thank you gentlemen for your replies.
I could not find Gaunt were already established in 1750. It is also good to know that such cards are of little added value.

Link to previous thread on Gaunt cards and Magpie’s detailed information.

https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=87548

Tim

I had a look at the old threads and agree that the "Royal Warrant" is wrong ....

.... but what I find interesting is that Gaunt used the "Established 200 Years" as early as 1901.

An advert in "1934 Dress Regulations for The Army" has "BY APPOINTMENT TO H.M THE KING" (photo from 2010 thread).

And yet with the 1938 advert that was published in the Army List it seems that the "full" Royal Warrant wasn't always used.


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The card is the appears to be the same as the one I enquired about, I was told it isn't a royal warrant not just wrong as it hast be in the format as described and the quality of print has to be up to a higher standard not just something that vaguely looks like the Royal coat of arms, there are real cards and I have one somewhere and the difference is obvious and I think then that is where they would break the law by using it as it should be displayed form memory.
I'm sure I read on something that popped up on my phone a while back that one of the regiments had been granted a continuation of the use of the Royal Arms and poud to announce it.

What I find strange is that Gaunt would produce and publish an advert in the 1938 Army List that isn't in the correct format . :confused:

Why , if they had a Royal Warrant at that time would they choose not to show it correctly ? Could the cards and adverts be a printer/publisher error using a generic "By Appointment" header instead of the official one ?

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They may not have held the warrant at that time, a lot of these cards like the one in the op are just a worthless piece of card solely for getting more money for the item being sold, there was loads of reproduction US insignia at Farnham a number of years back with similar style and they asked for good money for junk and as said by the lady at Buckingham Palace who admistered the warrants at the time the card at the op is not a royal warrant.

The easiest way of obtaining chapter and verse of the periods during which J. R. Gaunt held a Royal Warrant is to contact the Royal Warrant Holders Association and ask them to look at their records. That's if you really want to get to the crux of the discussion.

Printed material can vary depending on when it was printed and who printed it so I would not get to wound up about that. At the end of the day, it's really academic. The firm no longer exist.

Dave.

The address is number 2 Buckingham Palace, I did ask if when she had time if she could give me a time line of when they had held the warrant but that was 10 years ago, the thing now is that for quite a while now these fake/phoney or what ever else you would like to call the are being used as some sort of giving extra value to an item when they are nothing more than a piece of card.

This is getting interesting ! :D

In an earlier (2013) post you said :
The advert from "1934 Dress Regulations for The Army" shows the full "Royal Warrant" and I have a boxed Gaunt "British Legion" badges from early 1920's which shows they had one at that time.

NB: Date of British Legion badges based on membership number and Gaunt address. (Showroom located at 60 Conduit Street London 1918 - 1925)

So while it is possible they 'lost' the warrant for a few years (1936-1940 ?) is it also possible they used the basic "By Appointment" heading on adverts and cards during this short period ?

One other 'suggestion' is that when King George V died in 1936 there was a "gap" in the Royal Warrants , from 1937 the Gaunt adverts in the Army Lists used the basic "By Appointment" one but in May 1940 the same adverts had "By Appointment to the Late King George V".



So , while I agree that unscrupulous people may produce cards to up the price of items I think it is possible that Gaunt may have used them but only for a couple of years .

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Did a bit more digging in the Army Lists and found that in July 1936 the Gaunt advert showed the full Royal Warrant , in 1937/1938 they used the basic "By Appointment" one and changed to the "By appointment to the Late King George V" in January 1939.

I decided to check on Firmin & Son Ltd. and discovered that in 1937/1938 they also used the basic "By Appointment" one and then changed to "By Appointment to the Late King George V" in April 1939 (which was still used in April 1940).

So , it would appear that for a 2 year period it was accepted (and common) practice to use the basic "By Appointment" on adverts etc.

Some firms were then permitted to style themselves "By Appointment to the late King George V.," entitling them to display the Royal Arms, but not to fly the Royal Standard, nor to use the word " Royal ".

Summary : Were the cards produced and used , I don't know but they would not have been illegal at the time.

I have found several example of the Gregory and Quilter parachute badge on Gaunt cards (all the same as the one in post #1 - Warwick Street address).

But .... I have also seen numerous other different badges on 'similar' "By Appointment" cards but without an actual full address (only London and Birmingham) , I don't know if these badges would have been produced/sold during the short period that the cards may have been used.
Therefore I would have my doubts about these other cards being genuine.
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